19/02/2016

A month on…

Well it feels like a lot longer than 4 weeks since we launched the Valkyrie Owners Club on an expectant Valkyrie community.
Here’s a little bit of how we got here, believe me, we weren’t planning on having an international owners club for the mighty Honda Valkyrie.
We are a small group of owners who were feeling a little isolated up in the frozen north of England from all the VRCC club activity “down south”. So we decided we’d start a small riding group, call ourselves Dragon Masters and just do what we enjoy, ride our bikes and party.
We very soon had interest from approximately 10 – 12 local (ish) riders, someone suggested we should wear a patch, so we started designing one, then a website for communication was suggested, now that totally stumped us, none of us at that time knew the first thing about putting a website together but I was left with no option, as a lot of the members didn’t do Facebook and reminded me that was one of the reasons they wanted to start the new club. Most other clubs were moving away from websites and relying more and more on FB, they felt left behind and ignored.
Then a new member found us just as we were pondering how to do this and low and behold he worked in IT and offered to help with building a web site, we started developing ideas for our web presence.
I was then approached by another member from another club, who was very interested in what we were looking to do, word soon spread and before the end of 2015 we had been approached by members from as far afield as Germany, we very soon realised we had opened Pandora’s box, this thing could, if we weren’t careful run away with us.
It was then through discussion we settled on starting a “European” owners club, more work on developing patch and we soon came up with the one we are now using while not forgetting the original concept of Dragon Masters, we also started working on image and developing banners and other paraphernalia.

We mostly come from a business background so with the various input we could soon come up with a package we could present to the wider Valkyrie Owning community, while keeping an eye on the budget. We didn’t want to charge for membership, that would go against our original intention, so with that in mind we started looking at merchandise we could sell to members and the wider public to help fund the club. Again with the help of our new friend the IT wiz, we developed the banner and pictures that now adorn our website, Facebook page and T shirts, we will soon be introducing Mugs and other paraphernalia to complement these items and further add to the range.

We are also developing one off limited addition t-shirts, not all carrying the club logo so they will be desirable to other Valkyrie Owners that are not necessarily club members.
We launched our website and FB page 4 weeks ago, we have had inquiries from as far afield as the US, indeed we have a few members on the FB page from Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the US as well as here in the UK, truly an international presence, justifying the belief that there is a need for a dedicated Honda Valkyrie Owners Club.

So to the future, with the shop now open and selling t-shirts and hooded tops, we are looking at organising our first “Full Club Event” that will take place in 2017 in North East England, if for no other reason than to thank the northern riders for having faith and sticking with this new venture. The North east also offers some of the best undiscovered roads in the UK.
This year, our first gathering in the UK will be at the Dragons In The Park in August with entertainment, camping and glamping, then followed by a Club Meeting at the Ace Café in London in September, where we will have a promotional stand, then October we’ll finish the year at Copdock for the annual event there, where again we will have a club stand, with members being able to camp on site if they wish.

So from humble beginnings of a dozen members we now after 4 weeks have over 130 FB members, latest club registered members number is 129 and all that is through a closed group and word of mouth. Within the next few weeks we will be making the FB page public and launching some limited edition Shirts, some to be personalised with your members number, so if you haven’t registered for membership do so now here.

Soon the weather will turn and we will do what we are here to do, RIDE, when I will look forward to meeting with as many of you as I can.

Looking forward to the next few weeks and an exciting summers riding.

Mick Manchester

Chairman

18/01/2016

Welcome to the Valkyrie Owners Club – Club Launch

We aim to be a member’s led club and welcome any suggestions registered members put forward, relating to our internet presence and events or indeed any other club issues. Each area has a designated Club Representative (Rep). Their details are on the contact page.

Your area Rep will be glad to hear from you and you should feel free to contact them at any time. They are there to assist you in getting the most from your membership. They will organise local rides, meets and wrench parties where members can share knowledge and help with general maintenance of your ride.

Our mission statement you can see on our home page. The motto is keep it simple and we think we have. At the end of the day it is about riding the mighty Honda Valkyrie. While we have built structure into the club we have also made it our aim to be transparent in our operation. Aspects of this will become apparent as we move forward. We have a Facebook presence for day to day chit chat. Again feel free to join the group there. We are also aware that not everybody “does” Facebook, so any items specifically relating to the club will be copied to the main forum.

A final note for this opening statement, the web presence is an ongoing development. We will be adding a shop in the very near future, where you will be able to purchase branded merchandise that will also help to support the club.

We will also be adding a membership registration page when we feel we have enough members to justify a separate registration away from the forum registration. Full membership will allow us to present exclusive offers to those registered, along with other benefits, details to follow.